Gingrich: Sharia a 'Mortal Threat' to freedom in US

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is raising the alarm over Sharia, or Islamic, law. The GOP presidential candidate sees it as a “mortal threat” to freedom in the United States, The New York Times reported.

In a July 2010 speech to the American Enterprise Institute, Gingrich said, “I believe Sharia is a mortal threat to the survival of freedom in the United States and in the world as we know it. I think it’s that straightforward and that real.”

Gingrich’s comments put him in line with other conservatives who believe that Sharia poses the same type of threat that communism posed. As communism was an ideological threat to America separate from the Soviet military, Sharia is as dangerous as Islamic terrorists, the Times reported.

“Stealth jihadis use political, cultural, societal, religious, intellectual tools; violent jihadis use violence,” Gingrich said in the speech according to the Times. “But in fact they’re both engaged in jihad, and they’re both seeking to impose the same end state, which is to replace Western civilization with a radical imposition of Sharia.”

However, the Times noted that many view his campaign against Sharia as quixotic, noting American Muslims make up less than 1 percent of the U.S. population.

Akbar Ahmed, chairman of Islamic studies at American University in Washington, told the Times that the idea that Sharia poses a threat to America “takes your breath away, it’s so absurd.”